Got this from Walt Wimer on Chick Hale plus the picture from 1962 in Jax… Interesting stuff:
Unfortunately we keep losing drivers who made history in building the sport we love. Over the winter, William “Chick” Hale of New Madison, Ohio passed away at age 83. Hale was a legend at a legendary dirt track, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway. He was the only driver to have raced at the famed track every year that it was run by founder Earl Baltes…1954 to 2004. Hale ran his first race at the old Dayton Speedway way back in 1949, finishing fourth in a special street stock race with of all things, a four-door Frazier!!! How many of you remember Fraziers??? I do, so I guess that is telling my age!!
Hale won a bunch of track point championships at Eldora, topping the Late Models three times in 1970, 74 & 75 and then won the Stock Car points six times in 1975, 76, 77, 82, 86 & 87. But prior to all that he was a pretty good runner in the old Super-Modifieds of the 1960s. During the winter of 1962 he traveled down to Jacksonville, Florida to race at the old Jacksonville Speedway. An old half-mile dirt track forever remembered for Wendell Scott's lone NASCAR Grand National win on December 1, 1963. Jacksonville's regular shows, which ran almost all year long back then, were old Modified coupes at the time. However, long time promoter Julian Klein used to open up some of his winter races to sort of a "run what you brung" drawing quite a few Super-Modifieds and early Sprint Cars down from states to the north. Roy Robbins, who won the first big Knoxville race in Iowa, was one who came, along with the likes of Audie Swartz, Harold Fryer, Hale and others.
The car shown here was the #7 Super that Hale brought down to Jacksonville that winter. He sure didn't waste any paint!!!
Just an unpainted aluminum body with a big wing!! And check out those straight headers. On the hood it reads “Chrysler”. but I can’t tell for sure and don’t really remember. The car in to background was the Modified coupe of Yankee Smith, a solid front-runner during the Jacksonville weekly shows. I went to the Jacksonville track a number of times in 1961-63 during my Florida days. The track closed in 1973 per the HISTORY OF AMERICA’S SPEEDWAYS, and was replaced by Klein with JAX Raceways north of the city, but I never got to a race there.
Chick Hale was remembered in the current April issue of Dick Berggren's SPEEDWAY ILLUSTRATED, where you will find a tribute to Hale by Katie L. Boyer on page 17.
